Japan had to open ports to foreign trade when it lost the battle against Europe and America in Tokyo Bay (Bentley 508) . After losing, Japan began to industrialize and soon improved its military by investing in tools from the Western empires, which had very strong and powerful armies. Once Japan had built a strong army, it began to fight for Korea. They fought China and “demolished the Chinese fleet in a battle that lasted just five hours,” and later gained Korea and treaty rights in China (Bentley 550). The Chinese army was very weak. Having lost Hong Kong and many trading ports to Western empires following the Opium Wars, China was in trouble. The Chinese people began to rebel against the Qing Dynasty. After the most popular rebellion, the Taiping Rebellion, China began the self-strengthening movement. “While maintaining Confucian values, the movement's leaders built shipyards, built railroads, established weapons industries, opened steel foundries with blast furnaces, and established academies to develop scientific expertise” (Bentley 543). After doing all these things, China still did not have a strong enough military. They continued to address the problems of the West